These turkeys doing a "death dance" around a cat is the creepiest thing

The animal kingdom is a weird place, and sometimes a supremely creepy place. Take, for example, these turkeys doing a death dance around a dead cat in the middle of Boston. Jonathan Davis was headed to work when he saw a flock of turkeys walking around this poor dead cat, like, over and over and over again. It’s a sight to behold.

Davis, the guy taking the video is just as weirded out as you might be. He says, “This is the craziest thing I’ve ever seen. Bro, this is wild.” It really is pretty freaking crazy.

How do they know to do this all together? Who starts it and who stops it? (Probably a moving vehicle, but let’s not go there. There’s already a dead cat in the picture.) Apparently it’s a rare thing to see, but not totally crazy.

Turkey experts were stumped, too. Scott Gardner, a turkey expert with the California Department of Fish and Wildlife told The Verge that he thinks they’re having a fun time. “It’s not unusual for them to get into those dances where they chase each other around.”

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But what they are likely doing is trying to assess the threat of the cat, since cats are predators. David Scarpitti,a wildlife biologist and self-declared “turkey expert,” told The Boston Globe:

“I’m not sure they quite understand it’s a carcass in the road. But there’s always a ring leader with one in charge, and she likely encountered it to evaluate the threat. And as she is doing that, the rest are following suit. It’s just really creepy and weird.”

Apparently, it’s a well-known fact that turkeys are not that smart (we did not know this). This strange turkey circle is an example of that: They don’t know the thing they’re scared of is totally incapacitated. Also, no one in the group is brave (or smart) enough to just call the game for the cat and determine that it’s dead. Turkeys also don’t eat dead animals, so it’s not like some weird blessing ritual either. Silly turkeys.

If only Davis had stuck around longer so we could know how long they were at this thing and which one was on point enough to call it quits. We’ll never know at this point.